Hearing the question “You’re going to Disneyland in Florida?” makes me cringe a little, as I’m sure Disneyland lovers feel when people confuse their park with Disney World. While yes, they are both Disney parks, they are not the same – and my recent visit to Disneyland confirmed that.
Growing up a Disney World go-er, I wasn’t quite sure what I would think of Disneyland. I had been once before when I was young, so this was my second experience there but first time as an adult. We got there for rope drop and had the BEST day visiting Walt’s creation. It was really special to experience the park that started it all.
For those of you who haven’t been, Disneyland is made up of Disneyland (comparable to Magic Kingdom) as well as California Adventure. There’s also Downtown Disney which has some restaurants, bars, entertainment and shopping.
What We Liked
It’s doable to do both parks in one day – and visit Downtown Disney, too!
If you get a Park Hopper and MaxPass (which I recommend doing both), it’s so easy to go back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure and to hit all of the attractions. We started at Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland, hit the big attractions and had lunch at California Adventure, went back to Disneyland for the afternoon, had dinner at Downtown Disney, and then went back to Disneyland a third time! Since you go through security before the entry to the two parks (they face each other and share a common space), you don’t have to go through security again when you go between the parks – you simply scan your ticket to re-enter. It’s so easy!
Disneyland has better versions of some attractions.
While Disney World and Disneyland have some of the same rides and attractions, they are NOT always the same. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked some of Disneyland’s versions better than Disney World – Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, and last but not least, Space Mountain. Space Mountain (called Hyperspace Mountain a t Disneyland) is Star Wars themed, and within the first five seconds I was in love!! It was our last ride of the day, which was a bummer because I would have ridden it over and over 🙂
Galaxy’s Edge was quiet ALL day!
Like I mentioned, we ran at Galaxy’s Edge at rope drop with the crowds. We were able to walk right on Smuggler’s Run with no wait. I kept checking wait times throughout the day, and I was shocked to see that Smuggler’s Run was never more than 45 minutes! We went back to Galaxy’s Edge in the evening, and it was EMPTY – even quieter than our AP Preview at Disney World. We went into the Droid Depot and there was no one to be found. I spontaneously decided to build a droid and had so much fun since we had the place to ourselves!! Overall, Disneyland and California Adventure were much quieter than Disney World, but it was especially noticeable at Galaxy’s Edge.
What Was Different
The MaxPass system.
The Disneyland version of FastPass+ is called MaxPass. The biggest difference is that nothing is booked in advance – you can’t select Fast Passes until you enter the parks. Oh, and you have to pay $15 to use it. If you don’t, you can still get paper Fast Passes from the attraction kiosks that allow you to come back during a designated window (like the good old days ;)).
For MaxPass, you can only make one selection for your group at a time (link your party’s tickets together so one person can do it), and there are only specific time slots available for each ride. The time slots vary based on the popularity of the ride – they will get later as the day goes on and the popular rides will fill up, so keep an eye on them! After a certain window of time you can make additional selections even if you haven’t used your Fast Pass yet, and the app will tell you when that is. This means you could have multiple Fast Passes booked at one time once your waiting period is up. Set an alarm on your phone for the time you can book your next Fast Pass so you don’t forget!
Overall feel to the parks.
Disneyland feels smaller and more condensed than Disney World. There’s less land than in Orlando, so it makes sense. If you haven’t been to Disney World you likely wouldn’t notice, but it gave me a new appreciation for how spacious Magic Kingdom is. However, Magic Kingdom needs to be bigger to accommodate the crowds. Even in the most crowded areas of Disneyland, it never felt overwhelming (and it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend).
While California Adventure has a ton of awesome rides (and some unique ones from Disney World), the feel of that park was a little strange. All of the different areas/lands didn’t quite seem to go together. Again, if you haven’t been to Disney World you probably wouldn’t notice, but it made me appreciate the theming in each of the WDW parks.
WDW Park Planner Tips:
- Get a Park Hopper. It’s a necessity if you want to hit both parks in one day. The “big” rides are split between the two parks, so if you want to do all of those you need a Park Hopper ticket.
- Pay the extra $15 for MaxPass, especially if you only have one day. Again, this allows you to make Fast Pass selections from your phone for your entire group (you just simply link the tickets). We wouldn’t have been able to do a fraction of the rides without it. And most importantly, make sure you have a good understanding of it and have a gameplan before you enter the parks. My husband was our MaxPass expert and handled it for the four of us all day.
- Take advantage of the hidden Single Rider lines. The Single Rider lines are not as obvious as they are at Disney World, and they don’t list a wait time. We didn’t notice them at first because it’s so subtle! Not all rides have them, but the ones that do will have a sign somewhere that instructs you to ask a Cast Member about the Single Rider line. So that’s what we did! We took advantage of Matterhorn (literally walked right on) as well as Indiana Jones (took about 15 minutes, but still not bad!).